Team DRGN
by D1G1T4L
Summary: A team of faunuses, each with a painful past. A snake who was once a murderer. A wolf whose been hunted his whole life. A bear who hates her whole family. A falcon that has been betrayed and left to die. This is the story of Team DRGN, a team of faunuses, a team who'll hunt down every White Fang member into extinction. (DISCONTINUED)
1. Chapter 1 - The Formation of DRGN

Author's Note: Team DRGN is in the same year as team RWBY. This story will start out in the beginning of Episode 5 of RWBY, The First Step Pt. 2 (The episode where they're thrown into the Emerald Forest to determine their teams)

-

Diana wasn't really sure what to expect for how they were going to determine teams, but she definitely didn't expect being launched into the Emerald Forest with no idea of how to land safely without braking every bone in her body. "Use your own landing strategy" Ozpin said. Yeah, all Diana had was two revolvers and a knife, and her disguise semblance (allows her to disguise herself or other people as anyone or anything) wan't going to be very helpful. She was kind of hoping that she could at least get a parachute or something, but nope. All she got were words of disappointment. She could use her aura as a shield and just crash down into the forest, but she doubted her aura was strong enough for that. _'Come on Diana, think! What to do, what to-'_ Before she could even finish her thought process, the panel under her sprung open, and she went flying into the forest. _'OH CRAP OH CRAP OH CRAP'_ was all that cycled through Diana's head as she plummeted down into the forest. Unable to think of a good plan of landing, she resorted to her aura shield plan. She concentrated as hard as she could, channeling her aura into a shield that hopefully wouldn't shatter and end up with her splat on the ground. A light, golden colored barrier started to form around her as she concentrated, and before she knew it, she crashed into the forest.  
Surprisingly, the aura shield idea wasn't too bad. She wasn't hurt too badly, just a few minor scratches and one wound on her left arm, but she was exhausted. She used more aura than ever making that shield, and all she wanted to do was take a nap. Unfortunately, she'd probably end up being eaten by an Ursa or something if she slept in the middle of the forest. She decided to rest there for a few minutes before advancing towards this so called temple. She took a look at her surroundings, trying to see if anyone was near, but all she could see were the maze of trees surrounding her, and but she did hear a lot of random noises. There were some people screaming as they plummeted into the forest, occasional sound of the wind rustling the trees and bushes, and she could've sworn she saw a spear fly by, and then heard a male voice off in the distance yell "Thank you!" and another female voice shout back "Sorry!"  
Finally rested up, Diana advanced through the forest, going North just like Ozpin told them to. She was cautious as she did so, making sure no grimm were in sight and made sure she didn't scare away any potential partners. As she trudged through the forest, she gripped on one of her revolvers (called Viper Shots) with her left hand and her knife (named Venom Slicer) with her right, just in case a grimm sneaked up on her. She finally found a clearing in the Emerald Forest, and she saw a much taller male standing there, looking quite confused. He had short, silver white hair and light skin. He wore a light grey coat and black pants with dirt spots here and there. On his back was a massive silver sword. It looked quite simple, but Diana was certain it could transform into a gun or something, as most Hunter weapons did. She was about to go talk to him, but then she heard a growling noise behind her. _'Aw crap.'_

 _-_

Roland scanned the area he was in, unsure of where to go. He knew he was supposed to head North and find some relic, but truthfully, he had no idea where North was. Suddenly, he heard the sound of metal clashing behind him, and he whipped around to see a shorter women fighting with three Beowolves. The girl had long, dirty blonde hair and wearing what looked like leather armor. Her skin tone matched his, and he was almost certain he saw her hiss at the three Beowolves, like, literally hiss, with the forked tongue and even the fangs. He decided that she was going to be his partner, and he joined in the battle. The girl was actually doing quite well by herself, fighting them with only a revolver and knife, but she was agile enough that the grimm couldn't land a single hit on her. The blade of Roland's sword opened up, transforming his sword, Silver Reaver, into an automatic rifle. He sprayed his gun at one of the Beowolves, hitting its body and killing it within seconds. His ally plunged her knife directly into the skull of another Beowolf, and fired her pistol directly at the other one's head, finishing them both off. "Well, that was quite fun." Roland commented as the blonde removed her knife from the Beowolf's head and stuck it into her sheath.  
The girl smirked, and replied "Yep, haven't done any grimm killing for a while." She turned herself towards Roland before introducing herself. "I'm Diana Draken, a snake faunus. I can see your tail, so you're obviously a wolf faunus."  
"Aye, I take it that your faunus trait is your tongue? I saw you hissing at those beasts before I joined the fight."  
"Correct, I also have small fangs. Useful for scaring away humans who annoy me simply because I'm a faunus."  
"Heh, I feel like a lot of faunuses would like to have something like that. Something to keep people from harassing them and such. My name's Roland Kelus. I suppose that we're partners now, right?"  
"Yeah, we better start heading to the temple now before we get into any more trouble. I'm Diana Draken."  
"Right, so we're heading North now... uh, which direction's North?"  
Diana giggled a little, before answering him, "C'mon, this way." and she strolled back into the Emerald Forest with Roland following her. They chatted about random things as they walked down through the forest, such as their weapons and what they expected to do in Beacon. Their conversation was interrupted when they heard someone... whooping? They looked up, and saw a Nevermore fighting... other Nevermores? "What the heck's going on up there?" Roland asked, stunned by the aerial battle. "And who's up there?"  
"And... is someone on one of the Nevermores... shooting rockets?"

-

"THIS IS AMAZING!" A short haired, brunette bear faunus shouted as she launched another rocket at the attacking grimm. Her rocket struck the wing of a Nevermore, and it went crashing down into the forest. The brunette wore a black vest, with several grenades strapped to it. She had a red shirt under her vest, and wore brown cargo shorts. She looked like a generic tomboyish teenager; minus the grenades and rocket launcher.  
"Gwen, you are having way too much fun..." Her cloaked partner, Nicolai, sighed, sitting on the neck of the Nevermore they were riding on. Their bird veered right to avoid a barrage of feathers being shot at them by their enemies. Nicolai started shouting at their Nevermore in a strange language that Gwen has never heard anyone else use, only Nicolai when he summoned their ride, and the grimm accelerated in speed, nearly making Gwen lose her balance. They shot through the clouds faster than ever, and Gwen fired on last rocket at the enemies now far behind them. She must have been extremely lucky, because her rocket blew up on two Nevermores really close to each other, and they both went falling down into the Emerald Forest.  
"Hey Nico, you can talk to grimm, right?" Gwen asked, now that their enemies were far behind them.  
"Yeah, that's how I'm talking to this Nevermore we're riding."  
"Then how come you didn't try talking to the Nevermore we fought?"  
"Well, wild grimm are quite difficult to communicate with. Their first action when they see someone is normally kill them so I don't have time to talk to them. These Nevermores attacked us before I could even say a word, so we had no choice to fight them. Grimm I summon obey me right away since I made them."  
"Eh, I guess so. Would've been cool to see you like command a whole army of Nevermores or something."  
Nicolai chuckled a little before replying, "I'd be lying if I told you I hadn't tried to make an army of grimm. Summoning too many makes me extremely tired, and cooperating with just two wild grimm is difficult for me."  
"Hey, mind if I ask you another question?"  
"Well, we're going to be here for a while. Minus as well talk about something."  
"What's up with your clothes? You don't show a single part of your skin anywhere!" Gwen was right, Nicolai's outfit covered his entire body, literally. His hooded black cloak covered a majority of his body, he had gloves, pants, and basically wore plain black everything. He looked somewhat like a Sith from Star Wars. He had a grimm mask on, which represented the face of a Nevermore. It was somewhat fitting that he wore the mask of a grimm bird, since his semblance included grimm communication, and he was a bird faunus. An eagle faunus, to be exact. He had the eyes of an eagle, giving him keener eye sight than almost anyone, besides another faunus with similar traits.  
"I'll tell you about it with the rest of our team, whoever they are, because I don't feel like telling the story twice. I'm certain that our new team mates will ask me the same question."  
"Fine, whatever." Gwen sighed, her bear ears drooping. Her rocket launcher, which she named "Boom-Boom", converted into a grenade launcher, and she hung it over her shoulder. The two of them observed the forest below them, trying to find the temple with the relics.  
"Found it!" Nicolai called out, pointing at some small ruins. It was difficult for Gwen to see, but Nicolai could easily see it thanks to his eagle eyes. He could even see the relics, which were several pairs of chess pieces. He shouted at the Nevermore again, and it dove straight towards the ruins at full speed.  
The Nevermore glided over the ruins, and Gwen noticed Nicolai grabbing her wrist. "Uh, what are you doing."  
"We have to jump down. I see two people down there, and I don't want to risk them shooting down Deathwing. That's what I named the Nevermore by the way."  
"But how's jumping down any better? Either way we're falling straight to the ground."  
"Well, then I have one less dead grimm. Now don't look down and don't scream too loud." And Nicolai jumped off Deathwing, pulling Gwen with her. Gwen shut her eyes and screamed as loud as Nicolai told her not to, unsure of what his plan was. Nicolai simply closed his eyes, and some sort of darkness cloud started forming under them. The cloud reached onto the ground, and instead of Gwen and Nicolai going _Splat!_ on the ground, the cloud cushioned them surprisingly well, leaving them both unharmed. Gwen opened her eyes, and realized that Nicolai created the cloud to soften their fall. The cloud was a soft as a really, really comfortable bed, so comfortable that Gwen nearly just fell asleep right there. The cloud dissolved seconds after they landed, and both of them regained their balance. Gwen looked up and noticed the two people Nicolai talked about were staring at them in awe. One of them was a blonde girl about the same height as her. She wore two gauntlets and wore a golden shirt with her emblem on it. The other one was a black haired girl wearing a black bow on her head, holding some sort of katana. Nicolai noticed the two of them, and studied both of their appearances. Gwen wasn't sure why, but she felt like Nicolai flinched at the sight of the black haired girl.  
"That was quite an entrance you two made there." The blonde commented, still staring at them.  
Gwen laughed a little and replied "Yeah, it's not often I jump off of Nevermores and land in pillows made of darkness. But it was pretty fun, right Nicolai?"  
He was silent for a few seconds, as if dozing off, before responding, "Uh, right. Lets... just take the relic and go." Nicolai rushed over to the chess pieces and quickly grabbed a random piece (which happened to be a black queen). He was already heading back into the forest before Gwen stopped him.  
"Hey, we didn't even introduce ourselves yet! I'm Gwen Helen, a bear faunus." She introduced to the two females. "Sorry about my partner, he's pretty anti-social, but a really cool guys once you get to know him!"  
"Heh, it's okay." The blonde replied. "I'm Yang Xiao Long, and this is Blake Belladonna." She pointed to the black haired girl, and Blake simply waved a little at them.  
"Nicolai... Nexon." Was all that Nicolai said before disappearing into the forest.  
"Hey! Nico, wait!" Gwen shouted after him. She was about to chase him, until she heard another girl voice screaming from above "HEADS UP!"  
Everyone looked to the sky, and saw Ruby falling from the sky. Another person went flying in the sky, this Jaune, and he crashed into the Ruby, making both of them end up in a tree. Then, there was a crashing noise in the forest, and an Ursa came crashing through the trees. They heard someone yell "YEE-HAW!" from behind the Ursa, and Nicolai saw that there was a girl riding on it. Well, torturing it would probably fit better, but still, she was riding on the Ursa. She was followed by a guy in Asian clothing, Lie Ren. A pick explosion hit the Ursa in the back of the head, and it went limp onto the ground. "Aw, it's broken." Nora cried.  
"Nora, please, don't ever do that again." Ren sighed as he jumped over the Ursa's body.  
There was more crashing noises in the forest, and Gwen saw Nicolai running back towards them followed by a redhead girl... followed by a Deathstalker. _'My god, what the heck's going on?'_ Gwen thought to herself.  
"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Yang suddenly screamed out. "Can everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!"  
"One..." Gwen counted.  
"WHY WON'T IT DIE?!" a male voice yelled from the forest. A Boarbatusk came running through the forest, towards the group of hunters and huntresses with Roland riding on it. The wolf faunus was constantly stabbing it with his massive silver sword, but seemed to be unable to kill. Diana came out of the forest, chasing the Boarbatusk and her partner. She pointed her revolver at the grimm and fired three bullets at it. Each bullet struck the beast, and Roland finally managed to finish it off with his blade.  
"Nope, apparently we can't calm down for more than two seconds." Gwen sighed. She looked over to the Deathstalker that was chasing her partner and the redhead. Nicolai was constricting the giant scorpion with several ropes made from his strange darkness powers, but he seemed to have difficulty containing it. The girl was shooting at it with her gun, though she seemed to be doing little damage to it. Nicolai was also shouting at it in the strange language he used to talk to Deathwing, but the Deathstalker seemed to not be paying any attention to him.  
"Um... Yang?" The youngest girl of the group pointed up, and everyone looked up to see a white haired girl hanging onto a Deathstalker.  
"How could you leave me?!" Weiss shouted, struggling to maintain her grip on the Deathstalker.  
"I said jump!" Ruby replied.  
"She's gonna fall." Blake said.  
"She'll be fine!" Ruby assured them.  
"She's falling." Ren sighed.  
Jaune saw Weiss falling, and tried to jump from the tree and save her and... sort of succeeded. Well, at least he caught her. Thought they didn't really have a way down. Luckily, Nicolai seemed to have noticed them as he and Pyrrha were running away from the grimm. He summoned another darkness cloud like the one that cushioned his and Gwen's fall under the two people falling from the sky, thought Weiss still ended up landing on Jaune. A couple seconds after their landing, the Deathstalker sent Pyrrha and Nicolai flying towards the group of hunters and huntresses.  
"Great, the gang's all here! Now we can die together!" Yang exclaimed.  
"I can't feel my body... I'm not sure I still have a body..." Nicolai moaned.  
"Oh, cheer up Nico, you'll be fine!"  
"Please stop calling me that..."  
"Hey guys... those grimm are coming to kill us..." Diana pointed at the approaching Deathstalker and Nevermore.  
"Not if I can help it!" Ruby charged at the Deathstalker, boosting herself with her weapon... only to scratch it a little and end up running away from it.  
"Well, she tried." Roland sighed, watching Ruby run back towards them. Yang rushed forward to help her sister, but the Nevermore fired its feathers at Ruby. Her cape got stuck in one of the feathers, and she was unable to move. The barrage of feathers blocked Yang's path towards her sister, and Yang was unable to reach Ruby. The grimm scorpion came up behind Ruby as she struggled to free herself, and was ready to strike her with its tail. It almost did to, if it wasn't for Weiss. Weiss created a huge block of ice, and froze the Deathstalker's tail in it. Nicolai took this opportunity to try and communicate with it again. He rushed forward to it, and once again talked to it in his strange language. Everyone stared at him, confused by whatever he was saying. The Deathstalker seemed to have calmed down a little, surprising everyone, even Nicolai... before Nicolai got too close and was struck by its huge claws. Nicolai went flying back towards the group, even more injured. "Ugh... I give up..."  
"Come on dude, hang in there." Roland picked up Nicolai's body and flung him over his shoulder. "So... anyone got a plan on what to do?"  
"Look, our objective is to get an artifact and make it back to the cliffs." Ruby said to them. "There's no point in fighting these things." Ruby, Jaune, and Diana walked over to the relics and they each picked one up. Ruby picked up a gold horse, Jaune got the gold rook, and Diana chose the black queen.  
"It's time we left." Ren said to the others.  
"Right, lets go." Ruby commanded them. Ruby ran back to the cliffs, with everyone following her. As they ran through the ruins, Diana paused, and looked at the forest behind them, sensing a presence. Well, lots of presences, actually.  
"Beowolves!" She shouted to the rest of them. "And lots of them!" A large pack of Beowolves crept out from the shadows of the trees, slowly advancing towards them. A REALLY big pack, like at least five times the amount of them (which is 60), there were even some Ursas among them. All the beasts varied in sizes, but they were all still deadly. "You guys go on ahead, I'll hold them back!" Diana got in her fighting stance, holding both of her revolvers.  
"You alone? No way I'm doing that." Roland unsheathed Silver Reaver and changed it into rifle mode and stood next to her.  
"Roland... you can put me down, I'm good." Roland placed Nicolai back on his feet, and several red patterns on Nicolai's cloak started to glow. "It's time I released a few friends." Blobs of darkness formed near Nicolai's feet, and they shaped into themselves into several grimm creatures. In total, Nicolai summoned an Ursa, two Beowolves, a Deathstalker, and a King Taijitu. The others stared at Nicolai in shock, except for Nora and Gwen, who had amazed expressions on their faces.  
"You can summon grimm?!" Blake asked, staring at his creations. "Why didn't you use them earlier?"  
"I was trying to talk to the Deathstalker earlier, and it takes time to summon them. The whole time I was on Roland's shoulders I was concentrating."  
"I guess I'm staying here too then." Gwen's Boom-Boom converted into a rocket launcher, and she pointed it at the incoming Beowolves. "I'd be a pretty crappy partner, leaving my partner to have all the fun."  
Diana turned to the rest and said to them "You guys keep going. Trust me, us four can handle this."  
Ruby hesitated, but then nodded at her and continued running. The others followed her onto the bridge. "Well" Diana faced her comrades as the pack of Beowolves and Ursas advanced towards them. "You guys ready for some fun?"  
Gwen was way ahead of her. She rapid fire several rockets at the grimm, blowing up several of the monsters, and Nicolai commanded his grimm in the strange language he used. The grimm on their side roared into the air, as if shouting a battle cry, before charging at their enemies. Roland joined them, riding on the Ursa, firing at the group of grimm with his rifle. Diana hopped onto the King Taijitu as it charged at the incoming grimm. Nicolai stayed back and launched bombs made of shadows at the enemies. Nicolai's grimm lunged at the wild Beowolves, slashing and biting them as they clashed.  
Roland hopped off the Ursa and changed his weapon to sword mode as he sliced and smashed through the hordes of monsters. Diana fired at them with her dual pistols as she rode on the giant snake. Each shot hit her mark, and a Beowolf fell at almost all of her gun shots.  
Gwen fired a large variety of rockets at one of the larger Ursas. Each explosion had a different effect: one would burst into flames, another blinded the grimm with light, and another froze several monsters with ice. Though they had fewer grimm than the other team, Nicolai's grimm were more powerful. Not a single one of them went down as they fought against the enemy grimm, easily dodging and blocking most of their attacks. The Deathstalker Pyyrha and Nicolai fought earlier appeared, but it ignored the four of them and chased down the larger group of hunters.  
Nicolai continued casting his spells from afar, still injured from his earlier grimm encounter. Now all of his clothing had red patterns glowing brightly on them: his gloves, pants, shoes, even his mask. The Beowolves and Ursas they fought stood no chance against them. Roland's whole body was now glowing bright silver as he sliced his was through the monsters. Several of them would bite and slash his body, but they couldn't harm him a single bit. His attacks were much stronger than they were at the start of the battle, and he was actually smiling throughout the battle. Diana got out her Venom Slicer and started slashing and stabbing any enemy that encountered her, while firing one of her Viper Shots with her left hand at the enemies. She wasn't sure how, but she was easily able to differentiate between the wild grimm and Nicolai's grimm. Nicolai's grimm gave off a friendly aura of sort, she just somehow knew that they weren't her enemies. Roland and Gwen could feel it too, they knew who were the enemies and who were their allies, despite their similar appearances.  
Diana stabbed her knife into the skull of the last Ursa, and the battle was over. The friendly grimm let out one last roar before all melting and fading back into the darkness. Nicolai fell onto the ground, exhausted by all the aura he just used. The others rushed over to him to make sure he was okay. "Oi! You okay there?" Roland asked as he knelt down next to Nicolai.  
"Yeah... just tired..." Nicolai gasped out, and his eyes slowly closed, before he fell asleep.  
"Roland, take Nicolai again, he really needs some rest." Diana instructed Roland. He nodded and picked Nicolai's body up and flung him over his shoulder once more.  
"Looks like the others are done with their monsters too." Gwen pointed over at the eight other hunters and huntresses, where they saw a dead Deathstalker and a decapitated Nevermore.  
"Damn, did Ruby do that?" Roland asked, staring at the Nevermore's headless body on the cliff. Ruby stood next to it, holding her massive scythe.

-

"Diana Draken, Gwen Helen, Roland Kelus, and Nicolai Nexon," Professor Ozpin called out their names as they walked onto the stage. "The four of you have retrieved the black queens. From this day forward, you'll work together as DRGN, led by Diana Draken." Diana's eyes widened in disbelief. She definitely didn't expect to be put as the leader of their team. She never really thought herself as the leader of anything, but her new team mates seemed to have thought otherwise. Roland grinned and patted her on the back, Gwen gave her a thumbs up a long with a huge smile, and Nicolai simply nodded at her, his expression hidden behind his mask.  
Later that day, the members of team DRGN were in their dorm, cleaning up the room and unpacking all their stuff. As Nicolai was hanging up a clock, Gwen approached him and asked, "What was going on in the Emerald Forest?"  
Nicolai raised an eyebrow at her before asking, "What do you mean by that?"  
"When we met Yang and Blake, you were trying to get away from them almost the instant you saw them. Are you afraid of them or something?"  
"I... well, I suppose you could say I fear Blake a little. Why, is a story I'll tell you another time." Before Gwen could protest, Nicolai added, "You guys finish up, I need to talk to professor Ozpin about something." and he exited their dorm.  
"What's up with him?" Roland asked as he lifted a desk over Diana.  
"No idea, but he seems to really hate Blake." Diana noted. "Whenever he sees her, I see him flinch or become startled a little."

-

Professor Ozpin was in his office doing paperwork, when he heard a knock on his door. "Enter." he called out, and Nicolai entered his office. "Oh, Mr. Nexon, what can I do for you?"  
"Are you aware of who Blake Belladonna really is?" Nicolai asked him.  
"Why, of course I am. An ex-White Fang member, a cat faunus, and very good at keeping secrets."  
"Than why did you let her into Beacon? Do you really trust her?"  
"Nicolai, I know a liar when I see or hear one. Blake Belladonna is truthful and sincere. She may act secretive around others, but I can assure you, she is no harm. I've made more mistakes in my life than anyone else has, but I'm certain allowing Blake Belladonna into Beacon is not one of my mistakes."  
"...You may have made the more mistakes than Blake, but Blake has made the worst mistake."  
"Oh? And what's that?"  
"Betraying her closest friend." and Nicolai turned around to exit Ozpin's office.  
"Mr. Nexon, don't act too cold to Blake." Ozpin called out as Nicolai walked towards the door. "Besides, she isn't the only one keeping secrets." Nicolai paused right next to the door and slowly turned back around. "Both of us know your real name isn't Nicolai, nor is Nexon your last name. We also both know the true extent of your semblance. You want Blake to be truthful, yet you can't tell the truth yourself."  
"Professor, are you threatening me?"  
"I'm warning you. If Blake reveals her true past, than I expect you reveal the truth to her. I believe that she'll be more than happy to know you're still alive."  
"...Whatever you say, Ozpin." and "Nicolai" exited the room without another word.


	2. Chapter 2 - Painful Pasts

"...you think he's gonna wake any time soon?" Gwen asked Nicolai and Diana, all staring at Roland, who was still heavily sleeping in his bed, despite the several ear piercing alarms they put in his ears.  
Roland let out a loud snore, and Nicolai sighed at their sleeping team mate. "I didn't even think it was possible for someone to be this heavy of a sleeper. How much time do we have left until classes?"  
Diana looked over at the clock hung on the wall, before answering, "About half-an-hour left, though we didn't eat breakfast yet."  
"Can't we just go now and bring him some food back? I'm starving!" Gwen complained.  
Diana thought about that for a moment, and replied, "I've got a better idea." She walked over to her nightstand and picked up a hardcover book she was reading. She then walked over to Roland, and promptly smacked him across the face with the book.  
"OW! The heck was that for?!"  
"For oversleeping! Now hurry up and get ready before we miss breakfast!" Diana yelled at him aggressively.  
"Y-Yes ma'am!" Roland quickly complied, jumping out of his bed and running to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. Gwen was laughing her butt off at the scene in front of her, and though Nicolai didn't show much expression, Diana could tell her was snickering from under his mask. Soon, Roland came out of the bathroom, changed into his school uniform and sweating a little.  
Diana smiled cheerfully at him and said, "Good! Now lets head down to the cafeteria!" She practically skipped out of the room. Roland and the others stood there, shocked for a moment by her sudden change in attitude, before following her out their dorm. _'God, who knew Diana could be so cheerful and scary at the same time?'_ Roland thought to himself, jogging to keep up with Diana and the others.

-

As they ate their breakfast together in the cafeteria, Diana couldn't help but notice they were getting a few glances and glares from the other students around them, mainly humans. Not that she was surprised, of course. They were an all faunus team, she expected to get some hate from other students around them. She was also certain they were staring at Nicolai's strange attire. He wore the school uniform like everyone else had to, but he kept the mask on, and still wore his hooded cloak, concealing his identity, yet technically not breaking Beacon's uniform code. He also wore other unnecessary things to cover himself up, such as gloves, making it so that they was still no skin revealed. Well, she doubted they'd allow the mask, but surprisingly, no teacher seemed to give them a second glance.  
"Hey, what's up with the masked freak?" They heard someone from another table tease, followed by some laughter. Nicolai simply ignored them, slightly tilting his mask so he could put food in his mouth. Four humans started making their way towards them, which happened to be team CRDL. _'Oh great,'_ Diana thought, _'First day of classes, and someone on our team's probably going to get in a fight.'  
_ "Didn't you hear me?" The leader of team CRDL, Cardin, was about to reach for Nicolai's hood, but boy, did he regret that. A tendril of darkness shot out from under Nicolai's cloak and wrapped itself around Cardin's wrist. Nicolai didn't even bother moving or anything, he simply continued to eat his breakfast. Cardin tried to pull his hand out of the tendril, only to accomplish absolutely nothing. "Let me go!" he shouted, but Nicolai didn't react. He finished the reamins of his food, and took a sip from his coffee. Cardin tried to punch him with his other hand, but another tendril shot out and grabbed Cardin's other wrist.  
"You won't accomplish anything by being an idiot." Nicolai casually commented at Cardin's helpless state. Cardin growled at him, struggling to free himself. His team mates stood by him, shocked by Nicolai's powers.  
"Oi!" Gwen shouted out at Nicolai. "We gotta get to our class!" Diana, Roland, and Gwen were already near the entrance of the cafeteria.  
"Coming," Nicolai snapped his fingers, and his tendrils threw Cardin backwards, crashing him into a random table. Nicolai jogged over to his team mates and followed them to their class, ignoring the whispers and gossips he knew was going on in the cafeteria.

-

Team DRGN entered Professor Port's classroom, and took their seats about ten minutes before class started. There weren't a lot of people there yet, just a few teams and Professor Port doing some paperwork at his desk. He glanced at Nicolai's strange appearance, but quickly looked back down to the papers piled on his desk. Team DRGN talked about random topics while waiting for class to start, such as their semblances and weapons. They learned that Diana could disguise herself as anyone or anything, Roland had inhuman strength, Gwen could assemble or disassemble anything (her semblance is called Assemble) and Nicolai, though they all already saw his semblance, was called 'Grimm'. He also revealed that with his semblance, he could detect negative feelings.  
Seconds before class started, team RWBY came rushing in and they quickly took their seats, all panting from their lack of air. Gwen, Diana, and Roland noticed Nicolai stare at Blake for a few seconds as she got into her seat, before diverting his attention elsewhere. _'Seriously, what's up with him and Blake?'_ Gwen thought as she directed her attention towards Professor Port, who was beginning to address the class.  
Unfortunately, everyone on team DRGN got quickly bored of Professor Port's lesson. Diana tried her best to pay attention, but felt her mind slowly drifting off. Roland already looked like he was about to go back to sleep. Gwen looked around the room, trying to find something worth paying attention to, but the most interesting thing she could find was a blunderbuss sitting on the wall. Nicolai seemed to stare at the grimm trophies laid across the wall, but his team mates could see him occasionally glance at Blake before looking back at the trophies. _'Nicolai must rather have a crush on her, or really hates her.'_ Roland thought as he watched his team mate take another quick look at Blake. Diana was surprised that Blake didn't even notice Nicolai creepily watching her.  
Another thing team DRGN noticed about Nicolai is that he seemed to be annoyed by the way Professor Port talked about grimm. For an example, when Port joked about the grimm being his "prey", they noticed Nicolai's hand twitch a little, Diana even thought she saw his glove glow a little, as if he was about to use his semblance to attack someone.  
Anyways, the rest of the class continued to be quite boring (Port's story telling didn't help at all; if anything, it made the class even more boring). However, as Port was going over what a huntsman should be like, Nicolai all the suddenly whispered out loud, "Jealousy."  
Diana narrowed her eyebrows, and whispered to him, "What?"  
"Weiss." He replied. "I can feel her envy towards Ruby. She obviously doesn't approve of Ruby being the team leader. I bet that she feels better fit for Ruby's position." Diana and her other team mates looked over to Weiss, and saw that she was glaring angrily at Ruby, who was picking her nose and quite oblivious to what was going on. She made her jealousy even more obvious when she volunteered to battle the Boarbatusk.  
"Wow," Roland commented on Nicolai's ability. "The more I hang out with you, the more I'm certain that you're a grimm yourself."  
Nicolai chuckled a little, and answered back, "Who ever told you I wasn't one?" Roland was silent for a few seconds, trying to decide if Nicolai was really cool or really creepy. His thought process was interrupted, when the battle between Weiss and the Boarbatusk began.  
At first, Weiss was doing fine against the Boarbatusk. Unfortunately, Ruby seemed to be a distraction to Weiss. She was trying to encourage Weiss, but she ended up just annoying her, which led to her losing her weapon against the grimm. Weiss dove out of the way as the Boarbatusk charged at her, and it crashed into a wall. Weiss took the opportunity to rush over to her weapon and reclaim it. "Weiss!" They heard Ruby shout. "Go for it's belly! There's no armor undernea-"  
"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss interrupted her, clearly showing how annoyed she was. Ruby sunk into her seat with a sorrow expression on her face. The Boarbastusk started spinning into a ball, and charged at Weiss at full speed. She quickly put up a protection rune to block the attack, and the Boarbatusk was knocked backwards, with it's belly exposed. Weiss used a leap rune to boost herself towards it, and stabbed it with her sword, finishing it off.  
"Bravo, Bravo!" Professor Port praised Weiss. "It seems that we are indeed in the presence of a true huntress in training!" He looked at his watch, and said, "It appears that we have some more time left, perhaps enough time for one more match! Anyone else wish to prove them self as a true hunter or huntress?" Weiss took her seat with her team, ignoring Ruby's sad look on her face. Several students raised their hand, wanting to show off that they were just as strong as Weiss was. Port scanned the classroom, and he noticed a certain silver tailed student in team DRGN's row, paying little attention. "You there!" he shouted, taking Roland by surprise. "Are you a true hunter like Ms. Schnee here?"

-

Roland was equipped with the gear he wore in the Emerald Forest, with Silver Reaver in rifle mode. He stared at the two cages in front of him. Instead of fighting a Boarbatusk like Weiss did, he was to fight two Beowolves. "Now then, let the battle begin!" Port announced, and released the Beowolves. They instantly charged at Roland, who was firing his gun at one of the grimm. The Beowolves here must have been much stronger than the ones he fought in the Emerald Forest, because his bullets did little damage to them. _'Fine then,'_ Roland thought, shifting his rifle into a sword. _'I'll just have to slice them up!'_ Both Beowolves lunged at Roland from the sides and attempted to bite him his arms. Roland activated his strength semblance, and punched both the grimm away with no injuries. As they were both fazed by his sudden strength, he ran at the rightmost grimm and slammed his sword down onto it. However, he was too slow, and the Beowolf barely managed to jump away from him to dodge his attack. The other Beowolf attack his back, taking him by surprise. He shook off the beast and tried to slam his sword down onto that one too, but he was ambushed by the other grimm. They seemed to be tag teaming him, as Roland was too slow to be able to hit a single on of them.  
The other members of team DRGN watched as their team mate struggled against the two wolves. Diana heard a strange noise to her right, and looked to see Nicolai. Though she couldn't see his mouth, she was able to figure out that Nicolai was whispering to the Beowolves. Though she didn't know what he was saying, she hoped that he was trying to help Roland.  
The match slowly went into Roland's favor, as the Beowolves suddenly slowed down, making them much easier for Roland to attack. Roland used his semblance to power up his attack as he slashed at a too-slow Beowolf, cutting it in half and killing it instantly. The other Beowolf attempted to attack from behind again, but Roland spun around with his sword ready, and stabbed through the other grimm. "Impressive!" Port commented on Roland's battle. "I heard that you were quite a powerhouse during the initiation, and I see that they weren't lying!" Roland smiled sheepishly at the professor, and took his seat with his team mates. "Now I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today."  
As Professor Port went over their homework, Roland leaned over to Nicolai and whispered to him, "Thanks for the help."  
Nicolai smirked a little, and replied "You really need to work on your speed and strategy. I wont be there to save you at every battle."  
"I know, guess I never bother working on those things." Roland sighed as he packed up his things along with the others, and got up from his desk. Nicolai glanced over at Weiss as she rushed out of the class, and he sighed.  
"Let me guess." Gwen said, noticing Nicolai. "Weiss is still annoyed at Ruby." He simply nodded, and followed his team mates out of the classroom.

-

That night, team DRGN was gathered in their dorm because Diana told them she wanted to discuss something with them. "So, what is it you wanted to talk about?" asked Gwen sitting on her bed.  
"Well, since we're a team, I thought we should know each other better." Diana answered. "You know, things about our family, outside life, what we did before Beacon, all that stuff!"  
"Uh... yeah, that's a good idea..." Roland tried to act cheerful, but it was obvious he didn't like the idea of talking about his life before Beacon. The others didn't seem any happier than he did.  
"Um... if you guys don't want to talk about it, it's fine." Diana nervously said to them, not sure how to respond to the suddenly darkened mood in their dorm.  
"No, it's fine." Nicolai replied to her rather quitely. "I told Gwen I'd tell her about myself earlier anyways. Before I got into Beacon, I hunted White Fang members. I appreciated the fact that they wanted to help faunuses, except that their methods were far too extreme for my liking. So I wear all this clothing to conceal my identity, make sure the White Fang never find out who I really am."  
"Why does your identity matter?" Roland asked him. "You wear that disguise, they know that a masked, cloaked teenager is hunting them. You don't wear one, they know an unmasked teenager if hunting them. Doesn't really make much of a difference."  
"True, but the White Fang think I'm dead." Everyone's eyes widened, shocked by what Nicolai said. "You see, I started fighting them before I started concealing myself. I got in a major freak accident at a Dust factory they were raiding, and they believe I was killed by an explosion in there. My face is a bit scarred up, but I mainly wear it so they still believe I'm dead."  
"What about your family?" Diana asked. "Do they know you're still alive?"  
Much to everyone's surprise, Nicolai started laughing at that question. "My family couldn't care less about me. After they found out about my semblance, they feared me. They basically disowned me, leaving me to live off that streets. The only friend I had then was-" He suddenly stopped, before saying to them, "I only had one friend during that time."  
"Another thing you said you'd tell me about, what's up with you and Blake?" Gwen questioned. "You were trying to avoid her in the Emerald Forest, and kept looking at her during our classes."  
Nicolai was silent for a few seconds, before answering, "Blake... and I... have a bad history together." Nicolai kept hesitating between words, as if he was unsure if he was doing the right thing, telling them the truth. "We knew each other before that accident, the one that led the White Fang to believe I'm dead. We were quite close friends too, a bit too close for some people's comfort..."  
"What do you mean 'Too close for some people's comfort'?" Diana asked curiously.  
"...Well... us being too close, is what led to the Dust accident. I... I don't want to tell you too much about it, for I'd end up revealing some of Blake's secrets, and I don't want her to get suspicious of me."  
"But why are you hiding your identity from her then?" Gwen questioned. "If you guys were friends, then she'd be happy to see you, right?"  
"We _were_ friends." Nicolai put a rather large emphasis on the ' _were_ '. "The day of the incident, I lost my faith in her. I stopped trusting people, and hid myself behind this," he pointed at his mask "She's why that Dust accident happened."  
"Blake caused the accident?" Roland asked, shocked. "How?"  
"She was..." Nicolai drifted off, and remained silent for a few seconds, before continuing. "I've already revealed too much about Blake. I don't want to spread the truth about her, she'd be shunned, feared, and treated horribly. All you guys need to know is that it wasn't entirely her fault for what happened. If you want the full truth, then we simply have to wait for Blake to tell it."  
He remained silent and looked down onto the floor, signaling he was done with his storytelling. There was an awkward silence in their dorm, until Roland spoke up. "You know Nicolai, you aren't the only person here against the White Fang." Nicolai picked up his head, and looked towards Roland. "When I was maybe 9 or 10, my family got into conflict with them. Though we were also faunuses, my family hated their way of terrorizing people. They say that they don't accomplish anything except make humans hate us even more."  
"Well, they're not wrong..." Diana muttered quietly, listening to Roland.  
"Anyways, White Fang members attacked our home, and we had to run away. We've been living all across the country, hiding from them. We'd run into them occasionally, but my family never lost to them once. We knocked out and turned in any White Fang that tried to capture or kill us, but still, it wasn't fun. We were sort of poor, so we lived in tents in the middle of the forest usually. Once in a while, we'd head into the city to buy things or turn in White Fang members, but we were rarely ever out of hiding. I hate to admit it, but I was honestly terrified back than. I was always afraid I'd go to sleep, and wake up to find someone missing, or I'd wake up in a prison cell." Roland stared at the ground, with a weak smile on his face. "On the bright side, my family is still alive, and still hiding from the White Fang."  
"Who do you have in your family?" Diana asked, trying to brighten up the dark mood in their room.  
"Both my parents, and a younger brother." Roland answered. He seemed a bit depressed, explaining his past to the others.  
"Do you have any idea where they are now?" Gwen asked.  
Roland shook his head. "I write to them every week, with a special family bird delivering our letters. I don't know how it always finds them, but it does."  
Gwen looked down onto her bed, and muttered under her breath, "At least you still have family..."  
"...You have bad relations with the White Fang too, don't you?" Nicolai muttered to her, and Gwen nodded.  
"Similar to Roland, my family got involved with the White Fang. Difference is, instead of against the White Fang, they were with them." Everyone's head perked up in disbelief. "About five years ago, when I was 13, my family moved to a house in the middle of nowhere. We were secluded, I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone, and my family started training me. They told me I was going to be a hero to faunuses, that I was training to help people, and I blindly believed them. Every now and then, some shady person would come to my house and discuss something with my parents. The room they talked in was soundproof, and I was forbidden from listening to their conversations."  
"Let me guess," Roland sighed, "those shady people were White Fang members, and your parents were discussing plans with them."  
Gwen nodded, tears forming in her eyes. "Whenever they went out to work, they were actually raiding shops, robbing factories, all that stuff. I was too obedient, did everything they told me to do, always being told that I was doing it to help our kind. I never left the house unless to our backyard to train, I was home schooled, though I'm not sure if you can call learning how to blow things up homeschooling. I never saw other kids, never went into the city, never did anything except stay in my house and do whatever I was told to do." Tears started streaming down Gwen's cheeks, and Roland handed her a tissue box. She silently thanked him and wiped her face before continuing. "One day, curiosity took over me. My parents were once again having a discussion with their associate, and I eavesdropped them near the door. They must have been in a rush, because the door was left slightly open, enough to let me hear through it. I... I heard them talking about Dust they robbed, about where they planned on attacking. I even heard their associate mention something about people that _they_ killed.  
"The moment I realized what was happening, why we were so secluded, why they were training me in combat, why I was hidden away from everyone else; not only did they join the White Fang, they wanted me to join them as well. That same day, during their meeting, I packed up as much as I could and ran away from home. They must have really thought I was some obedient dog, because they put up no defense whatsoever to prevent me from running away. I didn't even know where I was going, just kept running away until I was certain I was away from them. The next couple of years, I was living on the streets of a town I didn't even know the name of. I still continued training, but so I could fight the White Fang, not help them. Couple years later, Ozpin saw me fighting a bunch of grimm, and he allowed me into Beacon."  
Everyone in the room remained silent, not sure how to respond to Gwen's story. "I know this means basically nothing to you, but I'm sorry." Diana said to her, and Gwen just nodded.  
"So... Diana, what's your family like?" Roland asked her, and Diana let out a weak smile. She thought that maybe talking about their families would bring up some joy and laughs in the room. She had no idea that everyone in this room had their family affected by the White Fang in some way. She was planning on saying she lived a normal life, that her family lived in a completely normal house in some normal neighborhood. But her true life was far from normal, and after hearing everyone else's stories, she just couldn't lie to them like that.  
"I have no idea who my family was. I never knew who they were, I don't have the slightest memory of them."  
"Then... who raised you? How'd you survive?" Gwen asked, still using several tissues.  
"Well, I... was raised by White Fang." Diana tried to say this as quietly as possible, hoping the others didn't hear her. "All my childhood memories were in the White Fang. My parents could have been terrorists for all I know. They raised me, trained me, and I thought of them as family. I became an actual member when I was only 6, and was already doing missions for them. Of course, I did very minor missions at first, but as I got older, they gave me more... extreme missions."  
"But... you didn't actually... LIKE being in there, right?" Roland asked, with a shaky tone. "You just did their missions because you had to, right?"  
"O-o-of course I didn't like it!" Diana responded a bit too quick and in a strangely nervous voice. "If I-I didn't do their missions, t-they'd kill me! That's the only reason I d-did their missions!" Her team mates stared at her uneasily. "I-I was afraid that if I d-didn't do as they said, I'd be punished, so I j-just obeyed all their orders." Diana was stuttering so much, it was becoming hard to understand what she was saying.  
"Diana, calm down. We don't think you're evil, or a monster." Nicolai assured her. "Like you said, you were forced to do their missions. You would've been killed if you hadn't."  
Nicolai's voice was so calm and assuring, it made Diana want to cry. _'But that's just the problem.'_ She thought to herself. _'I am evil. I am a monster. They didn't force me to do their work...'  
_ "I actually know someone who used to be in the White Fang. She was like you, Diana. She was forced to work for them, but she didn't want to hurt people. She thought she was helping faunus kind at first, and then realized that she was only making life worst for them. I assume that you feel the same way." Nicolai was trying to make her feel better, but this only made Diana feel worst.  
"...Yeah... that's how I felt..." Diana lied to them, practically whispering her words. "I... I'm going to sleep now." Diana didn't bother to brush her teeth or say good night to the others, she just fell onto her bed and buried herself into her blanket. _'Jeez, what was I thinking. Why would I suggest talking about family... They think I was forced to work for the White Fang... they think I hated them... please, please let them continue to believe that.'_


	3. A New Story

So I know that I'm only two chapters into this series, but I might discontinue this story. I had a new idea for another RWBY fanfiction I think that will be a lot more interesting and a lot more fun for me to write. I'll give you a general idea of what this new series will be about:

Instead of taking place in Beacon, it will be in a completely new academy; not one of the other three academies of the RWBY universe, but one located in a hidden, fifth kingdom of Remnant(I don't have a name for the kingdom yet). The kingdom was previously destroyed in the last war, and thought to be long gone. The few survivors from that kingdom went into hiding, and they planned to return the kingdom to its former glory. They've hid themselves in the shadows, slowly gaining members and power. They have several bases scattered all across Remnant, and have their own Huntsmen Academy(Name also unknown for now). The kingdom has a much darker tone to it, as does the Academy (I plan to make team names with a dark tone to them, like BLUD(Blood), NTMR(Nightmare), SKUL(Skull), etc.). This does not mean that they're evil, or that they act more crueler or anything, it's simply the theme of that kingdom. The academy is going to be placed in a somewhat isolated area, but rather close to Vale (Probably deep inside a cavern). This kingdom does not wish for more bloodshed with the other kingdoms, but choose to remain hidden, afraid that they'll be attacked again if they were to be discovered. They aren't aligned with the White Fang in any way; if anything, they're just as against them as the other kingdoms are. Fortunately, even the White Fang are unaware of their presence.

The reason I decided to make the academy close(ish) to Vale is because I want my protagonists (likely two or three teams) to interact with team RWBY and JNPR, maybe some others. The story starts somewhere around the beginning or RWBY (my teams will already be selected by the start. I'll keep on making up my own events and such until they reach the Vytal Festival, in which they will be involved in. I might also have them be involved in some other major parts of RWBY). I know there isn't much planned yet, but I'd much rather work on this than just do another fanfcition where I put my custom team in Beacon with RWBY, as I had noticed there was a lot of those already.


End file.
